Fairytale
by so.pixie.like
Summary: Bella wants Renesmeé to enjoy her childhood the best way possible: listening to fairytales.


Disclaimer: Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. Her gold, my fun.

BPOV

Renesmeé had left with Jacob to pay her daily visit to Charlie (who was happy as I'd ever seen him since he hooked up with Sue) and I sat with nothing to do as Edward played another never ending game of chess with Alice downstairs. I scanned the room, desperately looking for something to do, when I found a pile of books in a corner of the room. A neat handwriting read "_These are yours, Nessie. Love, Dad_." I groaned inwardly, realizing that both Edward and Renesmeé liked the sea-serpent nickname Jacob gave her.

Moved by pure boredom, I approached the book pile. To my surprise, most of the books were foreign language dictionaries. Edward told me our daughter has been trying to be an auto dictate in some new languages, but her prodigy condition still scared me.

The rest of the books were compilations of poems and even an encyclopedia. She wouldn't read it all, of course; it was easy to see that Edward was just trying to give her options. I smiled at his consideration.

The last book of the pile was a collection of tales, most by famous authors. I flipped through the pages, scanning the contents of the book. Mature themes, deep meanings behind the words, certainly not what I remember from the foggy memories of my childhood.

"Kids shouldn't read this stuff" I murmured for myself. "She's supposed to be reading lighter things. Like…" Then it clicked, and my boredom was effectively gone.

"Edward!" I quickly got down the stairs, heading to the living room where he sat with Alice, still engaged in their bizarre mental game.

"Hello, my love"

"Hey, Bella"

Their eyes didn't even meet mine. I realized they needed a hint.

"If you do this" I moved on of Edward's knights "and this" I moved a bishop of Alice's "the game gets stuck. Are you available now?" They looked at me with wide eyes. "You should have seen this one coming, Alice"

"I actually did, but I didn't really think you would do it" Alice laughed in disbelief.

"What brought this on, love?" Edward – finally – turned his attentions to me. I sat on his lap, my arms around his neck.

"Oh, I was searching for something to do when I found the books you gave our daughter" I paused, looking at my sister "Alice, how come you never wanted Renesmeé to read child books before? You really want to show her reading 'Bibliography of F. Scott Fitzgerald' in her baby book, when she's supposed to look five?" I pouted, trying to convince her. Apparently, it worked.

"You're right, Bella, oh my!" Alice put her hand on her forehead for dramatic effect. I chuckled. "There's this site when we can get absolutely every child merchandise out there…" She unfocused her eyes for a millisecond, focusing on me again. "They have a Barney collection, too-"

"Whoa, no freaky purple dinosaurs, pixie." Edward laughed at me, but agreed. "I wasn't really talking about these kind of child books, though. I meant fairytales. Like 'Snow White' or 'The Little Mermaid'."

"Oh, these ones. Well I hate to say this, Bella, but I don't know much about these." Alice made a heartbreakingly sad face. I sighed, smiling softly.

"Don't worry, Alice, I'll choose ones myself." Edward lightly kissed my neck, resting his head on my shoulders.

"Love?" I turned my face to his side, meeting his topaz gaze with my own. "I'm sorry if I sound negative, but do you really think Nessie-" I cringed as he corrected "Renesmeé will enjoy fairytales?"

"Why wouldn't she? Child books have a lot to offer" Alice suggested, already searching from her laptop.

"Yes, they do, thank you, Alice." I smiled at her.

"She might want to compare us to some stories, Bella." Edward frowned.

"I don't believe I ever read a child book with vampires in it." I pondered.

"That's because we are hardly fairytale creatures; more like horror movies characters" He answered and I scoffed, unable to contain a smile.

"And how is that, Edward? Won't you always be my prince charming?" I batted my eyelashes in a fake attempt at being seductive, earning a kiss from Edward.

Rosalie joined us, her perfect designer clothes stained with grease. She gracefully landed on the floor beside us.

"Cut the cheese, Bella, if you can" Alice let out a musical laugh "Your car is okay now, Alice."

"Thanks, Rosie"

"Can I suggest a story, Bella?" I turned to her, surprised. Who knew Rosalie liked child literature?

"Sure, Rose" I smiled, encouragingly.

"What about 'Sleeping Beauty'? It's a nice story, there isn't any gore or weird stuff. Nessie might like it." I was losing the strength to correct people. She flipped her hair back, sniffing the air and freezing like she caught a bad smell in the air.

Well, she did.

"Sure, and the main character is a blonde and needs her beauty sleep; just like you, Blondie." I turned to the familiar voice and saw Jacob standing in the doorway with an asleep Renesmeé in his arms "See? She liked the idea so much she's already practicing it."

Rosalie glared at him, standing up and going for the kitchen. Same old, same old.

"Easy, Jake, leave Rosalie alone" I picked Renesmeé up and she snored softly.

"So you guys are talking about fairytales, right?" He sat on the couch, propping himself up on one elbow. "I know a ton of them."

Emmett and Jasper were arriving then, probably smelling Jake and sensing Rosalie's distress about it.

"Of course, dog, you still read them to sleep, hugging your dearest teddy bear" Rosalie snickered from the kitchen as we all laughed.

"I know a good one" Emmett said, leaving the room and going to the kitchen to meet his wife "Try 'The Little Red Riding Hood'!"

"No, I don't think this is a good one" Jacob said. I looked at him, puzzled.

"Oh, you know the ending. She might get a little too attached to the wolf" He grinned and Edward (playfully, I like to think) hit him in the head with a punch.

"When I was little" Jasper's soothing voice started and I couldn't help but pay attention. "The Steadfast Tin Soldier was my favorite tale. I've always liked everything that remembered the army, even a little soldier in a child's story. "

I frowned; I didn't like this one, not very much. Sensing my discomfort, he sent me a wave of peace and I pushed these thoughts from my mind.

"I know the ending is a little sad, I'll admit it" _It's a lot sad_, I added in a particular note as he walked to the chair where Alice sat. "But think of it this way: at least in death he found love" he kissed the top of Alice's spiky hair "with the graceful little ballerina he always wanted." Alice stopped to type and circled her arms around Jasper's. The scene was so lovely I tore my gaze away, afraid of interrupting it. My gaze met Edward's and we smiled in confidence.

A tiny noise interrupted it, though. Renesmeé woke up, her bouncing curls tickling my arms as she stretched, her weight barely noticed. She touched her small hand to my face. _Hi, mom._

"Hello, sweetie. Slept well?" She smiled and nodded. Then, looking curiously at our gathering, she asked with her soprano bell-like voice "Why are you all together? What are you talking about?" She looked at me, anxious.

"Don't worry, love, everything's fine." I soothed her by pressing my lips to her forehead. "We were just talking about child stories that we like. Fairytales in special, do you know what I mean?" She nodded. Of course she knew about them. She knew basically everything. Blame Edward's genetics.

"And what's your favorite one, mom?"

I thought for a little time, then answered "The Ugly Duckling"

"And why do you like it? Is it nice?" she asked.

"Because I can identify with it" I said, simply.

She looked at me, confused, and I quickly told her the story. She jutted her lips in a cute little pout.

"Mom, you're not ugly, you're beautiful! You are not the ugly duckling there."

I smiled warmly.

"But I wasn't always, you know. I was an ugly duckling once, before finding your dad." I winked at him.

"That's a shameful lie, Bella." He turned to Renesmeé. "She has always been beautiful, and always will."

I could almost hear our siblings' eyes rolling with mine, when I noticed we were alone in the living room. So much for a family moment.

"What matters is" I cleared my throat "in the end, the little duck got what he wanted: a family that accepted him, where he finally fit." Edward and I smiled.

Her tiny pout turned to an "o" and we took her to her bedroom, down at our little cottage in the woods.

The next day, Alice's books arrived in a large box and Renesmeé laughed happily at her excitement. The pixie made her open every box and pose with different books for her human charade baby album. I changed my daughter's clothes about 10 times, so it looked like the pictures were taken in different days. Alice will be Alice; after all, she would never do anything halfway.

After some time, she went back to her intellectual, Edward-influenced literature. The fairytales were kept in a large old-styled bookshelf (another acquisition from Alice's new shopping trip), but I could easily find them scattered over the floor and behind her little arms when she took them off to read it with Jake or even Charlie, who loved to have something to share with her.

I knew it was a great idea.

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